Carol has recently been given the powers and responsibilities of a Kree Accuser, and her first job is investigating a war crime. But the perpetrator is…a surprise to be sure in this tale by Kelly Thompson, Cory Smith, Adriano di Benedetto, Tamra Bonvillain, and VC’s Clayton Cowles!
Cat Purcell: I’m a little wary of this, like all ~*EVENTS*~. I’ll be honest, I don’t typically feel like the outcome of events pay off for all the tie-ins and various arcs you have to keep up with. But I love my girl Carol and this event has a lot of her wrapped up in it whether she’s in it or not, so here we go.
Christina Eddleman: I have read many many events, which has done little to improve my opinion of them, honestly. However, Empyre has piqued my interest and is holding my attention. I’d been looking forward to our tie-in issues because a Kree-Skrull alliance seems like something Carol needs to be right in the middle of, and I also appreciate how well timed this event is within this run – no major plots put on pause! I can’t wait to dig in.
Car-Ell, The Accuser
CE: To quickly recap Empyre thus far: the Kree and Skrull have ended their never-ending conflict to join forces against the Cotati, a scary powerful plant race. The Avengers wound up duped by the seemingly peaceful Cotati, which resulted in the loss of a ton of Kree and Skrull lives. In a characteristically self-sacrificing move, Carol essentially dies for one panel to save countless lives by absorbing magical sword energy and using it to take out some attacking Cotati. This leads the Kree to give Carol the super awesome hammer of Ronan the Accuser and make her a member of the Kree Accuser Corps. Neat! You dizzy yet, Cat?
CP: Yeah, not gonna lie, this event has made my head spin from all the (not) homework. But as far as events go, this lead up had me on the edge of my seat. It was tightly written and beautifully depicted in art by Valerio Schiti and Marte Gracia. Now my first entire experience with Ronan the Accuser was Lee Pace so that’s immediately who I pictured passing this history down to Carol in my head. There’s a lot of weight on this hammer and not just physically.
CE: Especially given that Carol was on Hala for the death of Ronan, this seems like an incredibly significant weapon to pass down to her. Her fear of its power seems justified as well. Her caution regarding its power is definitely in character here and seems to foreshadow that this may be a tough role for Carol to fill. Carol understands the importance of wielding this power during this conflict, but I can’t imagine she’ll settle comfortably into the role of Accuser for long.
CP: In this current climate, I was a little leery of yet another layer of “space cop” being added to Captain Marvel. But if anyone can truly get the depths of this responsibility and balance needed to wield this title, especially after what we’ve seen of her in Thompson’s The End, it’s Carol. Now we’ll have to see how she handles it. As you mention, Christi, I doubt Carol will just accept this role the way its expected of her.
Carol, The Avenger (?)
CP: My biggest gripe with comics is fight after fight after fight with little substance. Thompson has shown us several times around that that’s not what she’s about as a writer. She packs a punch in her scripts and still shows how important growth and character development are and how important they are to keeping a fight scene engaging. This couldn’t be more obvious when she brings us Carol’s own thoughts “My life is complex, and darting from one emergency to another makes it easy to avoid tough questions . . . But holding this hammer . . . A weapon of immense power and symbol of Kree Justice, for good or ill makes it harder to avoid these questions.”
CE: Carol possesses the key attribute to being a compelling hero, she is constantly seeking to be in the position to do the most good. It is wonderful to see the blurred lines here between what will allow her to do the most good, versus what is right. It’s something we’ve seen her struggle with time and again. Most recently we’ve seen her “murdering” and deceiving the Avengers to protect the lives of Kree refugees. Carol thinks outside the box and uses every advantage possible to help those around her. Leveraging this position, this power, to achieve that will certainly be a slippery slope.
CP: Yeah, what I love about her is she is always working to just do the next right thing. She might feel stuck in a moment, but she takes her time to really assess the situation, and the lives it affects before choosing her next plan, constantly adapting to whatever is thrown her way. I’m a pretty impulsive person and there are some real times in my life I wish I’d taken that time to truly look at the weight behind my possible actions and not just ACT even if everyone is screaming at me to do just that. There are some good lessons here as we’re about to see!
Lauri-Ell, The Sister
CE: While Carol excels at saving lives, her first assignment to “accuse” someone already throws us a massive curveball and I love it. Car-Ell gets a sister! Well, half-sister. Lauri-Ell giving us those delightful strong girl vibes and making Carol make the tough choices quickly. While I’d seen some of the buzz about Lauri-Ell online before reading this issue, the reveal still packed a punch. How did you feel about this newfound sisterhood, Cat?
CP: I loved it. I hadn’t seen the buzz at all and am glad for it. It really took me by surprise and also immediately cast Gwendolyn Christie opposite Brie Larson in my head. Although we still don’t really how innocent Lauri-Ell is, I love that they’ve set off to find out together. I got immediate flashbacks to our last arc, as you mentioned, where Carol decides not to just murder to Avengers of Vox. I’m really looking forward to this team up, however brief it may be.
CE: I find Lauri-Ell’s apparent love and respect for her big sister incredibly endearing. As far as tie-in side quests go, I imagine this will give us quite the tale. Two sisters on the run from the Kree-Skrull alliance to find the truth! However, if Carol was going to be deceived, an adoring younger sister would certainly be the way to get to her.
CP: *insert kumbacha girl gif* You are so right about that. If any Avenger has a soft spot for found family, it’s Carol. As much as I’d hate to see it go down that path. Either way, itll be a wild ride and I’ll readily follow Carol down that path and couldn’t blame her one bit for it.
CE: On the whole, tie-ins really struggle to be effective methods of storytelling within the context of their own runs. Readers can feel jerked about and obligated to read titles they weren’t interested in. While we don’t get too much of a recap with this tie-in, I do feel that we’re going to get a meaningful Captain Marvel story out of this event. Shameless plug: readers can always fill in the gaps for these events here at Xavier Files!
CP: This is definitely an arc you can’t just breeze past the intertwining issues to grapple with and although I started out groaning about that, I’ve come around. I’m really intrigued so far with what I’ve read in Empyre. It’s gotten me to care about the Fantastic Four, I’m fascinated by the Cotati, and I know I’m not gonna regret seeing the details of Carol’s connection to all of this as the Accuser. If nothing else, the dreamy space backgrounds of Tamra Bonvillain will captivate you. I hope y’all stay on with us for this journey!
Marvelous Musings
- The Cotati give me huge Night Elf from Warcraft vibes and I’m here for it – CP
- As I’ve said before, Carol looks better in blue – CE
- I’m totally in love with Lauri-Ell’s braid. She’s too cute to be evil, right? – CE
- THUNDERBOLTS AND LIGHTNING VERY VERY FRIGHTENING – dang, the way the hammer meshes with Carols natural powers makes me definitely not ever want to be at the other end of her hammer. – CP
Cat Purcell is a Career Services Librarian, cosplayer, artist, and massive coffee consumer.
Christi Eddleman is the world’s first Captain Kate Pryde cosplayer and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
